Sumerian Inventions
This invention made farming much easier and was a major upgrade from the use of animal horns and pointy sticks.
What is the plow?
These were the rulers of Sumerian city-states.
What are kings?
A set of beliefs, usually in a god or gods, as well as various forms of worship.
What is a religious system?
This is where modern day Mesopotamia is located.
What is Iraq?
The geographic area located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
What is Mesopotamia?
This invention helped to carry and distribute water all throughout Mesopotamia so it could be used for agriculture and drinking water. Some examples include canals, dams, and reservoirs.
What are irrigation systems?
These people were in charge of recording laws as well as writing contracts.
What are scribes?
Temples and towers built and maintained by the king. Some were as high as 7 stories and as wide as 200 feet. It was believed that their gods lived in these at the top and could walk down the stairs to be on Earth.
What are ziggurats?
These are the two rivers where Mesopotamia is located.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
The means of supplying land with water.
This invention came to be used after its potential was discovered in pottery. It sits on an axle and spins.
What is the wheel?
The Sumerians believed the kings were supported by these, giving their government ultimate power and authority.
What are the gods?
What is human sacrifice?
This area was in northern Mesopotamia and had good land for farming.
The foothills of the Zagros Mountains
An early city that was like a small, independent country with its own laws and government.
What is a city-state?
This architectural invention added beauty and structural support to buildings and doorways.
What is the arch?
All city-states needed these for various reasons such as defending land boundaries, and fighting over the use of water. These were also led by the king.
What is the army?
These people were high up in the social structure of Sumer, and were believed to have been able to communicate with the gods.
What are priests?
People moved out of the northern foothills of the Zagros Mountains into this region due to this issue.
What are food shortages?
An ancient Mesopotamian temple tower with outside staircases and a shrine at the top.
What is a ziggurat?
Arguably the most important invention by the Sumerians. This was used to record information about the goods people exchanged with one another, and contained more than 700 characters.
What is writing? (Specifically cuneiform)
These are all the roles that the king and government played in Sumerian city-states.
What is: enforce laws, collect taxes, build temples, make sure irrigation systems are maintained, and lead the army.
Sumerians offered food, animals, valuable goods, and sometime even human sacrifices because they believed it would make their gods _________.
What is happy or please?
This describes how the southern area of Mesopotamia was for most of the year, and how the landscape was compared the mountains in the north.
What is dry and arid, and flat plains?
What is cuneiform?